FC Dallas maintained their good run of form, winning their 10th straight, and leaped to a share of league lead as they managed a 2-1 win over Real Salt Lake at Toyota Stadium on Friday night.

The win comes as a shock, with Real Salt Lake favored before the match and even more so when FC Dallas man Blas Perez was shown a red card late in the first half when the match was scoreless.

Toyota Stadium has been something of a haunted house for Real Salt Lake, who have managed just one win in Frisco in club history, a trend that continued despite the odds against it on Friday.

The first half was largely uneventful, with sides having their chances but neither looking convincing or having any truly convincing chances with the most notable event until the later stages being a yellow card to Perez for unsportsman like conduct.

That yellow card was only notable for what happened in the closing stages of the first half as Perez was shown his second after being shoved to the ground by Chris Schuler he was booked for simulation which stunned the Dallas crowd.

The decision seemed rather harsh as it was clear that Schuler did indeed push Perez, as acknowledged by the yellow card that Schuler received for the push, and the decision seemed to be based more on Perez's reputation than the evidence.

Whatever the reasoning, it left Dallas down a man for just over half of the match and set an unwanted record for FC Dallas, their ninth red card of the season it set a new club record and has FC Dallas leading that statistic.

Being down a man should have put FC Dallas in trouble, and indeed RSL looked more dangerous in the first minute of the second half. Yet the way the red card happened, made Dallas angry and they went for the match.

Five minutes in and they had their goal, and Schuler played his part as Michel's corner deflected off Schuler allowing Je Vaughn Watson to simply chest the ball in to the back of the net.

That goal seemed to galvanize the FC Dallas defense, which was just as well as Real Salt Lake were really forced to go for the game.

For all that work Dallas remained strong, and they clinched the win 16 minutes from time as Fabian Castillo beat Nat Borchers and hit a ball low and hard that left Nick Rimando with no chance.

In stoppage time RSL pulled a goal back but it may have been the goal of the week as Olmes Garcia's bicycle took a deflection on the way in but it was too little too late as FC Dallas managed a 2-1 win.

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Chris Hockman is an active part of the San Antonio Soccer Community, a registered referee & the first ever paying member of the San Antonio Soccer Supporters Group, The Crocketteers. He has been a freelance soccer journalist in Australia & covered the World Cup for the San Antonio Express News' website. Chris can be reached at chris@sanantoniosoccernews.com.